SMIPAC in Kolkata

There is a proverb in Urdu, ‘Mausiqui par Shabaab aaya’ (music has attained its youthful beauty). The common belief is – one has to literally live with the ragas 24x7 for at least forty years as soul mates! The experience of this union is the sap that nourishes the musician, and his art blooms to its full capacity. Surprisingly, these days we come across musicians in their thirties and forties with such maturity.

Like a true gemologist, Delhi based tabla maestro Shailendra Mishra, the visionary behind the social and cultural activities of SMIPAC Trust, does not believe in star-hunting. Instead, he picks up the gems who are denied the position they deserve in their own city due to the imbalance between demand and supply in the market of music industry and presents them in Harshotsav, an important annual event in New Delhi, for last thirteen years.

In 2024, SMIPAC debuted in Kolkata and felicitated three super-senior musicians living in anonymity. On 8^th June SMIPAC and Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad jointly organised another such Sangeet Sandhya ‘Harshotsav’ 2025 at Parishad Sabhagar. True to his promise Mishra awarded SMIPAC Yuva Puraskar as Sangeet Shree title to Bengal based young vocalist Armaan Khan (son of the late Rashid Khan); “Because I find some traces of his father’s music in his voice and I do hope, with diligent practice and proper focus on khayal singing, he will rise as a good musician,” clarified Mishra.

Like in 2024, the event also featured well-known local thirty/forty year old young maestros led by Omkar Dadarkar with widely popular veteran tabla maestro Samar Saha as his accompanist. He shared a nostalgic moment of his first audition in Sangeet Research Academy, “It was Samar uncle’s tabla support that paved the way to success and I could sail through the stringent tests to be an SRA scholar.’ ‘And after that,’ quipped Samar Saha affectionately, ‘for the first time in twenty-five years, we met on stage together here! I feel proud that I got this chance to accompany Omkar, one of the younger Gurus with SRA now, thanks to Shailendra Bhai.”  

This exchange of pleasantries was heartwarming. The charming vocalist visualized a languorous Chandrakauns through a longish, aesthetically pleasing aochar, displaying the raga’s ascending steps up to the upper tonic. Learned harmonium exponent Kamalaksha Mukherjee shadowed him with complementing discretion. The slow tilwada bandish, composed by Gunidas, appeared adorned with lyrics-based ascending-descending melodic phrases reaching up to upper madhyam. The elaboration beautifully illuminated the grey areas of the raga.

A smooth transition to the double speed of the original facilitated a cajoling behlawa trailed by gamak-taans and bol-taans before moving on to the fast teental bandish. The brief spell of dialogues with the tabla unleashed the flow of fast running taans with interludes of energetic fireworks of the tabla. Blessed by an appreciative tabla and harmonium support, his rendition cast its spell. Despite the time constraint persisting encores led him to a devotion-charged Kabir Bhajan. Equally adept at Natya-sangeet and bhajans, Dadarkar’s music inspired the harmonium to come out of its tributary role and display its virtuosity. It was electric!   

This bonhomie between equally competent musicians was missing in flautist Paramananda Roy’s recital. This brilliant musician-scholar of SRA literally sang a heavy meend-laden shuddh Kalyan through his gayaki anga based flute beautifully. To catch the pristine raagroop quickly, he very intelligently blended the refrains of some familiar compositions of the raga in his introductory alap, followed by three khayal bandishes. On the base flute the medium paced teen tal composition, penned and tuned by the legendary Dinkar Kaikini of Agra Gharana, sounded impressive due to added depth. The meend work was soothing. But Roy could accommodate only a few melodic phrases displaying complex rhythmic patterns. The second, a traditional bandish along with his self-composed piece in fast teental were essentially dedicated to taans of different speeds and grains. Frankly, he deserved a tabla accompanist as polished.

From this angle, the fast ascending sarod virtuoso Indrayuddh Majumdar was lucky to have veteran Shailendra Mishra’s tabla to enhance the beauty of his version of seasonal Miyan Malhar. One was happy to note that his innovative instincts have a more matured approach towards raga-elaboration. Technique-wise he is no less than his celebrated father sarod maestro Tejendra Narayan Majumdar. To take the soiree to its pinnacle, the young maestro played Bhairavi with élan. 

Earlier the evening commenced with a melodious invocation of Saraswati, sung by Debapriya Dasgupta, a disciple of Omkar Dadarkar. Her voice, diction and confidence promised a great future. A visibly elated Shailendra Mishra's only complaint was that his organisation could not get any sponsors. “I hail from this city. The old timers had spoiled me with their love and affection. As a child I received their unstinted guidance that injected me with a sense of responsibility which brings me back to my roots with a mission to serve my clan,” he signed off.